Sleep Quality Among Undergraduates During Pre-Examination Period

Nor  Aishah Ahad

doi:10.21070/ijemd.v5i1.48

(1) Nor Aishah Ahad
Malaysia
(*) Corresponding Author

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21070/ijemd.v5i1.48

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to examine the sleep quality of undergraduates during pre-examination period. In addition, the effect of examination stress and sleep quality on academic performance of the undergraduates is also of interest. Questionnaire is used to collect responses from 379 undergraduates regarding perceived stress and sleep quality on the first week of final examination. Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) is the instruments used in investigating the perceived sleep quality of respondents one month before the test is taken. Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) is used to measure the perceived stress level of the subjects for the past one month. The data dissemination concludes that the overall sleep quality of the undergraduates is poor. Female undergraduates tend to have a slightly better sleep quality than the male undergraduates. The sleep quality shows a weak positive relationship with perceived stress. It is also discovered that sleep quality and perceived stress have no effect on academic performance. The university authority might need to look into the problem of poor sleep quality among undergraduates especially during pre-examination period.

Author Biography

Nor Aishah Ahad

Ahrberg, K., Dresler, M., Niedermaier, S., Steiger, A., & Genzel, L. (2012). The interaction between sleep quality and academic performance. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 46(12), 1618-1622. doi:10.1016/j.jpsychires.2012.09.008

[2] Åkerstedt, T., Orsini, N., Petersen, H., Axelsson, J., Lekander, M., &Kecklund, G. (2012). Predicting sleep quality from stress and prior sleep – A study of day-to-day covariation across sixweeks. Sleep Medicine, 13(6), 674-679. doi:10.1016/j.sleep.2011.12.013

[3] Baert, S., Omey, E., Verhaest, D., &Vermeir, A. (2015). Mister Sandman, bring me good marks! On the relationship between sleep quality and academic achievement. Social Science & Medicine,130, 91-98. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.02.011

[4] Burrus, R., & Graham, J. (2013). Sleep Deprivation and Introductory Finance Student Performance. Journal of Financial Education, 39(3/4), 31-46.

[5] Buysse, D. J., Reynolds, C. F., Monk, T. H., Berman, S. R., & Kupfer, D. J. (1989). The Pittsburgh sleep quality index: A new instrument for psychiatric practice and research. Psychiatry Research, 28(2), 193-213. doi:10.1016/0165-1781(89)90047-4

[6] Chokroverty, S. (2010). Overview of Sleep & Sleep Disorders. Indian J Med Res, 131, 126-140. Retrieved April 17, 2016, from http://www.ijmr.org.

[7] Cohen, S., Kamarck, T., &Mermelstein, R. (1983). A Global Measure of Perceived Stress. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 24(4), 385. doi:10.2307/2136404

[8] Deliens, T., Clarys, P., Bourdeaudhuij, I. D., &Deforche, B. (2013). Weight, sociodemographics, and health behaviour related correlates of academic performance in first year university students. Nutrition Journal Nutr J, 12(1), 162. doi:10.1186/1475-2891-12-162

[9] Ellis, S. K., Walczyk, J. J., Buboltz, W., & Felix, V. (2014). The relationship between self-reported sleep quality and reading comprehension skills. Sleep Science, 7(4), 189196. doi:10.1016/j.slsci.2014.12.001

[10] Galambos, N. L., Lascano, D. I., Howard, A. L., &Maggs, J. L. (2013). Who Sleeps Best? Longitudinal Patterns and Covariates of Change in Sleep Quantity, Quality, and Timing Across Four University Years. Behavioral Sleep Medicine, 11(1), 8-22. doi:10.1080/15402002.2011.596234

[11] Gao, R., Lv, Y., Li, X., Zhou, K., Jin, X., Dang, S., & Li, N. (2014). Effects of comprehensive sleep management on sleep quality in university students in mainland China. Sleep and Biological Rhythms, 12(3), 194-202. doi:10.1111/sbr.12063

[12] Genzel, L., Ahrberg, K., Roselli, C., Niedermaier, S., Steiger, A., Dresler, M., &Roenneberg, T. (2013). Sleep timing is more important than sleep length or quality for medical school performance. Chronobiology International, 30(6), 766-771. doi:10.3109/07420528.2012.763132

[13] Gilbert, S. P., & Weaver, C. C. (2010). Sleep Quality and Academic Performance in University Students: A Wake-Up Call for College Psychologists. Journal of College Student Psychotherapy, 24(4), 295-306. doi:10.1080/87568225.2010.509245

[14] Gildner, T. E., Liebert, M. A., Kowal, P., Chatterji, S., & Snodgrass, J. J. (2014). Associations between Sleep Duration, Sleep Quality, and Cognitive Test Performance among Older Adults from Six Middle Income Countries: Results from the Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health (SAGE). Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine JCSM. doi:10.5664/jcsm.3782

[15] Gillen-O’Neel, C., Huynh, V. W., &Fuligni, A. J. (2012). To Study or to Sleep? The Academic Costs of Extra Studying at the Expense of Sleep. Child Development, 84(1), 133-142. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2012.01834.x

[16] Gottlieb, D. J., Redline, S., Nieto, F. J., Baldwin, C. M., Newman, A. B., Resnick, H. E., & Punjabi, N. M. (2006). Association of Usual Sleep Duration with Hypertension: The Sleep Heart Helath Study. SLEEP,29(8), 1009-1014.

[17] Hedges, Jennifer M., "Sleeping the way to success: Examining the relationship between sleep and academic success among college students" (2012).MastersTheses.Paper 1050.

[18] Hershner, S., &Chervin, R. (2014). Causes and consequences of sleepiness among college students. Nature and Science of Sleep NSS, 73. doi:10.2147/nss.s62907

[19] Joo, E. Y., Yoon, C. W., Koo, D. L., Kim, D., & Hong, S. B. (2012). Adverse Effects of 24 Hours of Sleep Deprivation on Cognition and Stress Hormones. J Clin Neurol Journal of Clinical Neurology, 8(2), 146. doi:10.3988/jcn.2012.8.2.146

[20] Kashani, M., Eliasson, A., &Vernalis, M. (2011). Perceived stress correlates with disturbed sleep: A link connecting stress and cardiovascular disease. Stress,15(1), 45-51. doi:10.3109/10253890.2011.578266

[21] Mansfield, D. R., Hillman, D. R., Antic, N. A., McEvoy, R. D. & Rajaratnam, S. M. (2013). Sleep Loss and Sleep Disorders. The Medical Journal of Australia, 199(8), 5-6. doi:10.5694/mja13.11157

[22] Önder, I., Beşoluk, Ş, Iskender, M., Masal, E., &Demirhan, E. (2014). Circadian Preferences, Sleep Quality and Sleep Patterns, Personality, Academic Motivation and Academic Achievement of university students. Learning and Individual Differences, 32, 184-192. doi:10.1016/j.lindif.2014.02.003

[23] Richardson, M., Abraham, C., & Bond, R. (2012). Psychological correlates of university students' academic performance: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 138(2), 353-387. doi:10.1037/a0026838

[24] Sano, A., Phillips, A. J., Yu, A. Z., Mchill, A. W., Taylor, S., Jaques, N., Picard, R. W. (2015). Recognizing academic performance, sleep quality, stress level, and mental health using personality traits, wearable sensors and mobile phones. 2015 IEEE 12th

[25] Shaffer, K., Kuhlman, A., Leone, R., Tucker, R., Morgan, A., &Ludy, M. (2015). Relationship between Health Status, Quality of Life, Sleep, and Academic Success in Undergraduates. The Official Journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, 29(1). doi:10.1096/fj.1530-6860

[26] Siraj, H. H., Salam, A., Roslan, R., Hasan, N. A., Tan, H. J., & Muhammad Nazim. (2014). Sleep pattern and academic performance of undergraduate medical students at universitiKebangsaan Malaysia. J App Pharm Sci Journal of Applied Pharmaceutical Science, 52-55. doi:10.7324/japs.2014.41209

[27] Short, M. A., Gradisar, M., Lack, L. C., & Wright, H. R. (2013). The impact of sleep on adolescent depressed mood, alertness and academic performance. Journal of Adolescence, 36(6), 1025-1033. doi:10.1016/j.adolescence.2013.08.007

[28] Taylor, D. J., Vatthauer, K. E., Bramoweth, A. D., Ruggero, C., & Roane, B. (2013). The Role of Sleep in Predicting College Academic Performance: Is it a Unique Predictor? Behavioral Sleep Medicine, 11(3), 159-172. doi:10.1080/15402002.2011.602776

[29] Unger, M. (2016). "The Relationship Between Self-Compassion, Sleep Quality, and Perceived Stress Among Undergraduate and Graduate Students".PCOM Psychology Dissertations. Paper 356.

[30] Wald, A., Muennig, P. A., O'connell, K. A., & Garber, C. E. (2014). Associations Between Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors and Academic Performance in U.S. Undergraduates: A Secondary Analysis of the American College Health Association's National College Health Assessment II. American Journal of Health Promotion, 28(5), 298-305. doi:10.4278/ajhp.120518-quan-265

[31] Wang, R., Chen, F., Chen, Z., Li, T., Harari, G., Tignor, S. & Campbell, A. T. (2014). StudentLife. Proceedings of the 2014 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing - UbiComp '14 Adjunct. doi:10.1145/2632048.2632054

[32] Wolf-Meyer, M. (2011). The Nature of Sleep. Comp Stud Soc Hist Comparative Studies in Society and History, 53(04), 945-970. doi:10.1017/s0010417511000466

[33] Wong, M. M., Rowland, S. E., & Dyson, R. B. (2014). Sleep Problems, Academic Performance and Substance Use among Adolescents. North American Journal of Psychology, 16(3), 629-648.

[34] Your Guide to Healthy Sleep. (2005). U.S Department of Health and Human Services. Retrieved April 17, 2016.

[35] Zunhammer, M., Eichhammer, P., & Busch, V. (2014). Sleep Quality during Exam Stress: The Role of Alcohol, Caffeine and Nicotine. PLoS ONE,9(10). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0109490

References

Ahrberg, K., Dresler, M., Niedermaier, S., Steiger, A., & Genzel, L. (2012). The interaction between sleep quality and academic performance. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 46(12), 1618-1622. doi:10.1016/j.jpsychires.2012.09.008 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2012.09.008

Åkerstedt, T., Orsini, N., Petersen, H., Axelsson, J., Lekander, M., &Kecklund, G. (2012). Predicting sleep quality from stress and prior sleep – A study of day-to-day covariation across sixweeks. Sleep Medicine, 13(6), 674-679. doi:10.1016/j.sleep.2011.12.013 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleep.2011.12.013

Baert, S., Omey, E., Verhaest, D., &Vermeir, A. (2015). Mister Sandman, bring me good marks! On the relationship between sleep quality and academic achievement. Social Science & Medicine,130, 91-98. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.02.011 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.02.011

Burrus, R., & Graham, J. (2013). Sleep Deprivation and Introductory Finance Student Performance. Journal of Financial Education, 39(3/4), 31-46.

Buysse, D. J., Reynolds, C. F., Monk, T. H., Berman, S. R., & Kupfer, D. J. (1989). The Pittsburgh sleep quality index: A new instrument for psychiatric practice and research. Psychiatry Research, 28(2), 193-213. doi:10.1016/0165-1781(89)90047-4 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/0165-1781(89)90047-4

Chokroverty, S. (2010). Overview of Sleep & Sleep Disorders. Indian J Med Res, 131, 126-140. Retrieved April 17, 2016, from http://www.ijmr.org.

Cohen, S., Kamarck, T., &Mermelstein, R. (1983). A Global Measure of Perceived Stress. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 24(4), 385. doi:10.2307/2136404 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2136404

Deliens, T., Clarys, P., Bourdeaudhuij, I. D., &Deforche, B. (2013). Weight, sociodemographics, and health behaviour related correlates of academic performance in first year university students. Nutrition Journal Nutr J, 12(1), 162. doi:10.1186/1475-2891-12-162 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/1475-2891-12-162

Ellis, S. K., Walczyk, J. J., Buboltz, W., & Felix, V. (2014). The relationship between self-reported sleep quality and reading comprehension skills. Sleep Science, 7(4), 189196. doi:10.1016/j.slsci.2014.12.001 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.slsci.2014.12.001

Galambos, N. L., Lascano, D. I., Howard, A. L., &Maggs, J. L. (2013). Who Sleeps Best? Longitudinal Patterns and Covariates of Change in Sleep Quantity, Quality, and Timing Across Four University Years. Behavioral Sleep Medicine, 11(1), 8-22. doi:10.1080/15402002.2011.596234 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/15402002.2011.596234

Gao, R., Lv, Y., Li, X., Zhou, K., Jin, X., Dang, S., & Li, N. (2014). Effects of comprehensive sleep management on sleep quality in university students in mainland China. Sleep and Biological Rhythms, 12(3), 194-202. doi:10.1111/sbr.12063 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/sbr.12063

Genzel, L., Ahrberg, K., Roselli, C., Niedermaier, S., Steiger, A., Dresler, M., &Roenneberg, T. (2013). Sleep timing is more important than sleep length or quality for medical school performance. Chronobiology International, 30(6), 766-771. doi:10.3109/07420528.2012.763132 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3109/07420528.2012.763132

Gilbert, S. P., & Weaver, C. C. (2010). Sleep Quality and Academic Performance in University Students: A Wake-Up Call for College Psychologists. Journal of College Student Psychotherapy, 24(4), 295-306. doi:10.1080/87568225.2010.509245 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/87568225.2010.509245

Gildner, T. E., Liebert, M. A., Kowal, P., Chatterji, S., & Snodgrass, J. J. (2014). Associations between Sleep Duration, Sleep Quality, and Cognitive Test Performance among Older Adults from Six Middle Income Countries: Results from the Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health (SAGE). Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine JCSM. doi:10.5664/jcsm.3782 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5664/jcsm.3782

Gillen-O’Neel, C., Huynh, V. W., &Fuligni, A. J. (2012). To Study or to Sleep? The Academic Costs of Extra Studying at the Expense of Sleep. Child Development, 84(1), 133-142. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2012.01834.x DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2012.01834.x

Gottlieb, D. J., Redline, S., Nieto, F. J., Baldwin, C. M., Newman, A. B., Resnick, H. E., & Punjabi, N. M. (2006). Association of Usual Sleep Duration with Hypertension: The Sleep Heart Helath Study. SLEEP,29(8), 1009-1014. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/29.8.1009

Hedges, Jennifer M., "Sleeping the way to success: Examining the relationship between sleep and academic success among college students" (2012).MastersTheses.Paper 1050.

Hershner, S., &Chervin, R. (2014). Causes and consequences of sleepiness among college students. Nature and Science of Sleep NSS, 73. doi:10.2147/nss.s62907 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2147/NSS.S62907

Joo, E. Y., Yoon, C. W., Koo, D. L., Kim, D., & Hong, S. B. (2012). Adverse Effects of 24 Hours of Sleep Deprivation on Cognition and Stress Hormones. J Clin Neurol Journal of Clinical Neurology, 8(2), 146. doi:10.3988/jcn.2012.8.2.146 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3988/jcn.2012.8.2.146

Kashani, M., Eliasson, A., &Vernalis, M. (2011). Perceived stress correlates with disturbed sleep: A link connecting stress and cardiovascular disease. Stress,15(1), 45-51. doi:10.3109/10253890.2011.578266 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3109/10253890.2011.578266

Mansfield, D. R., Hillman, D. R., Antic, N. A., McEvoy, R. D. & Rajaratnam, S. M. (2013). Sleep Loss and Sleep Disorders. The Medical Journal of Australia, 199(8), 5-6. doi:10.5694/mja13.11157 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5694/mja13.11157

Önder, I., Beşoluk, Ş, Iskender, M., Masal, E., &Demirhan, E. (2014). Circadian Preferences, Sleep Quality and Sleep Patterns, Personality, Academic Motivation and Academic Achievement of university students. Learning and Individual Differences, 32, 184-192. doi:10.1016/j.lindif.2014.02.003 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2014.02.003

Richardson, M., Abraham, C., & Bond, R. (2012). Psychological correlates of university students' academic performance: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 138(2), 353-387. doi:10.1037/a0026838 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/a0026838

Sano, A., Phillips, A. J., Yu, A. Z., Mchill, A. W., Taylor, S., Jaques, N., Picard, R. W. (2015). Recognizing academic performance, sleep quality, stress level, and mental health using personality traits, wearable sensors and mobile phones. 2015 IEEE 12th DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/BSN.2015.7299420

Shaffer, K., Kuhlman, A., Leone, R., Tucker, R., Morgan, A., &Ludy, M. (2015). Relationship between Health Status, Quality of Life, Sleep, and Academic Success in Undergraduates. The Official Journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, 29(1). doi:10.1096/fj.1530-6860 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1096/fasebj.29.1_supplement.276.5

Siraj, H. H., Salam, A., Roslan, R., Hasan, N. A., Tan, H. J., & Muhammad Nazim. (2014). Sleep pattern and academic performance of undergraduate medical students at universitiKebangsaan Malaysia. J App Pharm Sci Journal of Applied Pharmaceutical Science, 52-55. doi:10.7324/japs.2014.41209 DOI: https://doi.org/10.7324/JAPS.2014.41209

Short, M. A., Gradisar, M., Lack, L. C., & Wright, H. R. (2013). The impact of sleep on adolescent depressed mood, alertness and academic performance. Journal of Adolescence, 36(6), 1025-1033. doi:10.1016/j.adolescence.2013.08.007 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2013.08.007

Taylor, D. J., Vatthauer, K. E., Bramoweth, A. D., Ruggero, C., & Roane, B. (2013). The Role of Sleep in Predicting College Academic Performance: Is it a Unique Predictor? Behavioral Sleep Medicine, 11(3), 159-172. doi:10.1080/15402002.2011.602776 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/15402002.2011.602776

Unger, M. (2016). "The Relationship Between Self-Compassion, Sleep Quality, and Perceived Stress Among Undergraduate and Graduate Students".PCOM Psychology Dissertations. Paper 356.

Wald, A., Muennig, P. A., O'connell, K. A., & Garber, C. E. (2014). Associations Between Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors and Academic Performance in U.S. Undergraduates: A Secondary Analysis of the American College Health Association's National College Health Assessment II. American Journal of Health Promotion, 28(5), 298-305. doi:10.4278/ajhp.120518-quan-265 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4278/ajhp.120518-QUAN-265

Wang, R., Chen, F., Chen, Z., Li, T., Harari, G., Tignor, S. & Campbell, A. T. (2014). StudentLife. Proceedings of the 2014 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing - UbiComp '14 Adjunct. doi:10.1145/2632048.2632054 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/2632048.2632054

Wolf-Meyer, M. (2011). The Nature of Sleep. Comp Stud Soc Hist Comparative Studies in Society and History, 53(04), 945-970. doi:10.1017/s0010417511000466 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0010417511000466

Wong, M. M., Rowland, S. E., & Dyson, R. B. (2014). Sleep Problems, Academic Performance and Substance Use among Adolescents. North American Journal of Psychology, 16(3), 629-648.

Your Guide to Healthy Sleep. (2005). U.S Department of Health and Human Services. Retrieved April 17, 2016.

Zunhammer, M., Eichhammer, P., & Busch, V. (2014). Sleep Quality during Exam Stress: The Role of Alcohol, Caffeine and Nicotine. PLoS ONE,9(10). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0109490 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0109490